


Return of the Cyborg

by StarOfTheCountyDown



Series: Return of the Cyborg [1]
Category: Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: Disney, Science Fiction, Steampunk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:40:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27813940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarOfTheCountyDown/pseuds/StarOfTheCountyDown
Summary: It's been two years since the voyage of the RLS Legacy to find Flint's trove.  In those two years, Jim Hawkins has rebuilt the Benbow Inn, graduated from the Interstellar Academy, and gained an "adopted" sister.  This girl, Bridget, is a more recent acquaintance of John Silver, and comes bearing the news that Silver has died.  But when Silver appears, alive and in danger, everything changes.  The return of the cyborg brings new adventures as well as new foes to be reckoned with, and Jim, Bridget, Silver, Dr. Doppler, Captain Amelia and the rest can face them all.
Series: Return of the Cyborg [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035159
Kudos: 2





	Return of the Cyborg

Chapter One: The Black Spot 

There was nothing Bridget liked more than to get a moment's relief from her work, just long enough to look at the odd assortment of customers in the bar and hear snippets of their conversations and stories. She loved working at The Spy Glass, but these fleeting moments were a surrogate experience for her, the only way she could see the world beyond Montressor. The fifteen-year-old girl knew she could never leave - her employer and guardian, John Silver, had left his adventuring days behind him so as to flee some bad habits and haunting actions, and she was going nowhere without Silver's help - but hearing the stories customers told of their voyages and expeditions was almost enough to fill that longing. 

"Oi, Bridge! These gentlemen's drinks aren't going to refill themselves!" Silver's coarse voice came as he rounded the corner from the kitchen, holding a tray filled with all sorts of drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike. "But if any of 'em give you trouble, you just let me know, an' I'll take care of 'em," he added in a lower voice, fixing her intensely with his one intact eye while his cyborg eye gleamed. Due to her age, Bridget had become a target for lewd comments from drunk or uncouth customers, and Silver was quick to throw out any offenders. For this Bridget was deeply grateful, and it was for this - as well as the fact that he allowed her to sleep in the spare room and provided food and clothes for her - that she regarded him as both her employer _and_ her guardian. 

Bridget ran a hand through her dark hair to remove it from her face, then returned to work. She set three cups down at the table where the soldiers sat, returning their salutes, and proceeded to take the remaining cup to the lone customer who sat in the corner. He was an unsettling fellow, try as Bridget might not to discriminate by species. He was red and black and arachnid-like, with great big golden eyes on either side of his thin, fanged face. Those eyes narrowed as hr grinned sinisterly at Bridget. 

"Here you go, a tall Scorpius ale, probably our hardest liquor," the girl said, masking her unease. "Enjoy!" Before she could walk away, the stranger's scorpion-like claw gripped her wrist and held her by the table. 

"Not so fast," he hissed. His voice was low and threatening. "Tell the owner of this place I'd like a word." 

With that, he let Bridget go, and she immediately returned to the kitchen where Silver was making a massive vat of stew. "Silver, there's someone who wants to speak with you, the one who ordered the Scorpius ale. I'm not sure why, but I think it's important, at least to him." 

"Alright, then," Silver said, wiping his hand on his apron before removing it and tucking in his shirt. "Lead the way, lass." 

The moment they entered the main dining room where the customers were and Bridget pointed out the inquiring guest, Silver's face darkened considerably. Bridget noticed the grin on the stranger's face had gone from sinister to downright evil. Silver placed a hand on her shoulder and gently shoved her behind him. "Get back in the kitchen now, Bridge. Don' pay this any mind." 

Bridget did as she was told, but the next moment came back out to continue waiting tables, trying to catch pieces of what the stranger had to say to Silver. 

"I knew you'd gone soft, but i never expected this," the creature hissed, almost tauntingly. 

"Strong words for someone who's supposed to be dead," Silver retorted. Bridget thought he sounded tired and angry, though she couldn't be sure, having never seen Silver angry apart from when he had to throw customers out of the bar. 

Her path of tables took her away from the conversation, and she could only read their facial expressions as she delivered food and cleared empty dishes. This got her nowhere, for Silver's back was to her, and the other creature's face remained nerve-wracking and patronizing. By the time she returned within earshot of the conversation, she knew she had missed a great deal. 

"I never imagined you to be able to contrive such stories," the creature said to Silver. "But I can see through it all the same. It's not like you to leave empty-handed, John." 

The cyborg pounded his fist upon the table, not loudly enough to disturb the other customers, but forcefully enough to emphasize his words. "I'm telling yeh, the whole planet blew to smithereens, the treasure with it, even the map. We escaped, an' I left before we even come into port. There ain't nothing left of Flint's trove or the planet where it was hidden, Mr. Scroop, an' that's all there is to it." 

Instead of responding immediately, the stranger - Mr. Scroop - slipped a piece of paper across the table to the cyborg, who looked at it and then back at the sly, insectoid face. 

"The black spot?" Silver breathed. "Listen to me, bug brain, I ain't hiding anything, this won't do you no good!" 

"You have two days," Scroop hissed before standing to leave. 

"Wait," Bridget said to the arachnid-like creature before he was halfway to the door. "You haven't paid your score, sir," she finished meekly as the golden eyes glowed dangerously at her. 

Silver's strained whisper of "What're yeh doing, lass?" were ignored by Bridget as she held out her hand, allowing Mr. Scroop to drop three coins into her palm while continuing to glower at her. Scroop then turned back to Silver, the taunt back in his face. 

"Very loyal, that one," he smiled, a horribly evil smile, at the cyborg. "An excellent target." 

At this, Silver stood, knocking over the table in his haste and fury. "Get out of here, you yellow-livered mercenary!" he growled threateningly, pointing at the door with his cyborg hand. "Get out! An' never come back! I'll kill yeh on sight, I will!" 

Mr. Scroop sauntered out the door of The Spy Glass on his multiple legs, speeding up once he realized Silver had cocked the pistol setting of his cyborg arm. Once he was out of sight, Silver went to Bridget and handed her a spare pistol. 

"Keep this. An' if that bug ever comes back here again, you shoot 'im right between the eyes, you understand?" The cyborg's words were unusually gruff, and Bridget could feel the atmosphere in The Spy Glass change horribly. If Silver was in danger, then she had to be on her guard to prevent anything that might happen to him. 

\--- 

That night, after they had closed everything up and were both sitting by the fire, Bridget asked Silver if Mr. Scroop had been on a past voyage with him. The cyborg laughed nostaligically, saying only that the insectoid menace was "a right competent coxswain and gunner, but a murdering coward." Bridget did not push for the full story that night, but two nights later she would wish she had. 

Two nights later, when she would awake to the smell of smoke and the cries of people outside. She would run down the stairs and out the front door into the street, where the Monstressor Spaceport Fire Responders were putting all their best efforts into dousing the flames. She would search everywhere for Silver that night, and when she could not find him amid the crowd, would realize that he must still be inside The Spy Glass. She would try to run back inside the burning building, but would be restrained by the assorted appendages of the Fire Responders. She would come back to the scorched ruins of The Spy Glass the next morning and find no trace whatsoever of the cyborg. And when Bridget would find a piece of paper left on the burnt remains of the building, a paper blackened on the one side that had obviously been placed there after the fire, she would recognize that paper as the "black spot" she had overheard Silver name, and she would wish then most of all that she had pushed for the full story.


End file.
